Zami, the Spelling of My Name: Analysis and Interpretation

Summary: Analyzes the autobiography Zami, The Spelling of My Name, by Audre Lourde. Examines Lourde's blind attitude on racism due to the sheltering of her parents.

The book Zami, A New Spelling of My Name, by Audre Lorde was written in the late 1950's. The novel traces back Audre Lorde's childhood from when she was growing up in Harlem through her many discoveries in life, which relate to her blind attitude on racism due to the sheltering of her parents.

Throughout childhood Lorde was sheltered by her parents. She explains how her parents choose to protect Lorde from American racism by never naming the language and physical differences between blacks and whites. Furthermore, In High school Audre Lorde had never spoken to her close friends or anyone about racial differences instead she believed that she could "conquer it by ignoring it (pg. 81)." She comments in the novel, "But we never ever talked about what it meant and felt like to be Black and White, and the effects that had on our being friends...everybody...